Free Will Astrology

ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Basic research is what I am doing when I don’t know what I am doing,” said rocket scientist Werner von Braun. I think it’s an excellent time for you to plunge into that kind of basic research, Aries. You’re overdue to wander around frontiers you didn’t even realize you needed to investigate. You’re ready to soak up insights from outside the boundaries of your understanding. In fact, I think it’s your sacred duty to expose yourself to raw truths and unexpected vistas that have been beyond your imagination’s power to envision.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In Woody Allen’s film “Midnight in Paris,” the Ernest Hemingway character says, “All cowardice comes from not loving, or not loving well enough.” Given the state of your current astrological omens, Taurus, that is an excellent piece of advice. I suspect you are going to be asked to call on previously untapped reserves of courage in the coming weeks—not because you’ll have to face physical danger but rather because you will have a chance to get to the bottom of mysteries that can only be explored if you have more courage than you’ve had up until now. And the single best way to summon the valor you’ll need is to love like a god or goddess loves.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “When I see your face, the stones start spinning!” wrote the poet Rumi, as translated by Coleman Barks. “Water turns pearly. Fire dies down and doesn’t destroy. In your presence I don’t want what I thought I wanted.” I think you need to be in the presence of a face like that, Gemini. You’ve got to get your fixations scrambled by an arresting vision of soulful authenticity. You need your colors transposed and your fire and water reconfigured. Most of all, it’s crucial that you get nudged into transforming your ideas about what you really want. So go find that healingly disruptive prod, please. It’s not necessarily the face of a gorgeous icon. It could be the face of a whisperer in the darkness or of a humble hero who’s skilled in the art of surrender. Do you know where to look?

CANCER (June 21-July 22): “All my life I have longed to be loved by a woman who was melancholy, thin, and an actress,” wrote nineteenth-century French author Stendhal in his diary. “Now I have been, and I am not happy.” I myself had a similar experience—craving a particular type of woman who, when she finally showed up in the flesh, disappointed me. But it turned out to be a liberating experience. Relieved of my delusory fantasy, I was able to draw more joy from what life was actually giving me. As you contemplate your own loss, Cancerian, I hope you will find the release and deliverance I did.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): If you traveled 300 million years back in time, you might freak out in abject fear as you encountered dragonflies as big as eagles and cockroaches the size of dogs. But since you’re quite safe from those monsters here in the present, there’s no need to worry yourself sick about them. Similarly, if you managed to locate a time machine and return to an earlier phase of your current life, you’d come upon certain events that upset you and derailed you way back then. And yet the odds are very high that you’re not going to find a time machine. So maybe you could agree to relinquish all the anxiety you’re still carrying from those experiences that can no longer upset and derail you. Now would be an excellent moment to do so.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): To prepare for her role in the film “The Help,” actress Jessica Chastain forced herself to gain fifteen pounds. It was tough, because she normally follows a very healthy diet. The strategy that worked best was to ingest a lot of calorie-heavy, estrogen-rich ice cream made from soybeans. To be in alignment with current cosmic rhythms, it would make sense for you to fatten yourself up, too, Virgo—metaphorically speaking, that is. I think you’d benefit from having more ballast, more gravitas. You need to be sure you’re well-anchored and not easy to push around. It’s nearly time to take an unshakable stand for what you care about most.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In a famous Monty Python sketch, a Hungarian tourist goes into a British tobacconist’s store to buy cigarettes. Since he doesn’t speak English, he consults a phrase book to find the right words. “My hovercraft is full of eels,” he tells the clerk, who’s not sure what he means. The tourist tries again: “Do you want to come back to my place, bouncy bouncy?” Again, the clerk is confused. In the coming week, Libra, I foresee you having to deal with communications that are equally askew. Be patient, please. Try your best to figure out the intentions and meanings behind the odd messages you’re presented with. Your translating skills are at a peak, fortunately, as are your abilities to understand what other people—even fuzzy thinkers—are saying.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): There are modern Chinese painters who use oil paints on canvas to create near-perfect replicas of famous European masterpieces. So while the genuine copy of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” is worth over $100 million, you can buy an excellent copy on the Internet for less than $100. If you’re faced with a comparable choice in the coming week—whether to go with a pricey original or a cheaper but good facsimile, I suggest you take the latter. For your current purposes, you just need what works, not what gives you prestige or bragging rights.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “It is a tremendous act of violence to begin anything,” said Sagittarian poet Rainer Maria Rilke. “I am not able to begin. I simply skip what should be the beginning.” I urge you to consider trying that approach yourself, Sagittarius. Instead of worrying about how to launch your rebirth, maybe you should just dive into the middle of the new life you want for yourself. Avoid stewing interminably in the frustrating mysteries of the primal chaos so you can leap into the fun in full swing.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The Golden Gate Bridge spans the place where San Francisco Bay meets the Pacific Ocean. It wasn’t easy to build. The water below is deep, wind-swept, beset with swirling currents and on occasion shrouded with blinding fog. Recognizing its magnificence, the American Society of Civil Engineers calls the bridge one of the modern Wonders of the World. Strange to think, then, that the bridge was constructed between 1933 and 1937, during the height of the Great Depression. I suggest you make it your symbol of power for the coming weeks, Capricorn. Formulate a plan to begin working toward a triumph in the least successful part of your life.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): It’s an excellent time for you to get an entourage—or if you already have one, to expand it. For that matter, it’s a perfect moment for you to recruit more soldiers to help you carry out your plot to overthrow the status quo. Or to round up more allies for your plans to change the course of local history. Or to gather more accomplices as you seek to boldly go where you have never gone before. So beef up your support system. Boost the likelihood that your conspiracy will succeed.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): If you expand your concept of what you’re capable of, you will receive a specific offer to move up a notch. If you perform your duties with intensified care and grace, you will be given new responsibilities that catalyze your sleeping potential. The universe doesn’t always act with so much karmic precision, with such sleek, efficient fairness, but that’s how it’s working in your vicinity right now. Here’s one more example of how reasonable the fates are behaving: If you resolve to compete against no one but yourself, you will be shown new secrets about how to express your idiosyncratic genius.

Homework: Are you ready for an orgy of gratitude? Identify ten of your best blessings. Tell me all about it at Freewillastrology.com.